Microsoft Clarifies Backward Compatibility Stance

kukyfrope writes "Peter Moore, Head of Interactive Entertainment at Microsoft, has clarified previous comments about gamers not being concerned with backward compatibility on the Xbox 360, claiming his words were 'misconstrued' and reiterating Microsoft's goal to make every Xbox game backward compatible. 'It's quite simply not that we don't care about backward compat[ibility]. Boy, do we care about backward compat[ibility]... We're going to get darn close to that stated goal of every title done,' Moore promised."

Comments

at this rate

[underwhelm]

I hope they're working on some universal code that will support a bunch of games with one release. This nickel-dime approach will have them finished with the library in about 2037.

Meantime, tons of popular XBox games (Platinum Hits) aren't supported on the 360. As far as native games go, if I don't want to have a chick fight, drive, or play a sport, I don't have much reason to turn on my 360 at all.

Either one would please me: extensive backwards compatibility or a worthwhile native library. Right now the 360 offers neither. I just hope one or the other happens before I get bored with Burnout.

Re:at this rate

[Control Group]

I want BC as much as anyone and more than many (my XBox is on indefinite loan to a friend of mine), but don't sell the library of 360-native games quite so short. CoD2, Kameo, Oblivion, and Tomb Raider are all quality titles that don't fall into the categories you named. And if you expand to XBLA, you can toss Geometry Wars, Marble Blast Ultra, and Wik on the list as fantastic games.

It's not exactly a selection measured in Libraries Of Congress (or even VW Beetles), but there are good games that aren't sports/driving/fighting out there.

Re:at this rate

[Control Group]

Compared to the PS2 at the same point in its life, the 360's game lineup is kick-ass...
Not to post contrariwise to what I already said in this thread, but - while you're certainly right in terms of native games, the PS2 did have the advantage of playing all (or at least, virtually all) PS1 games. It made the game lineup seem meatier than it actually was, but that's really all that matters: how many (good) games can you sit down at your console and play?

(Note that this comes from a guy who neither had nor wanted a PS1 or a PS2)

Re:at this rate

[Kell_pt]

> Reasons to turn on your 360?

- You're under 18, and have plenty of spare time
- Your friends come over and play with you
- Your girlfriend also plays
OR
- You're still learning to handle girls, but can take the distraction

So, put that in perspective. I was a Spectrum addict when I was 12-16 (and friends came over), I was a 386 addict up to 18, and I'm 28 now, with my 3rd long term relationship (and hopefully the last one) and an healthy dose of attempts in between.

Playing games is good for you. :)

Re:Emulation?

[tepples]

couldn't something be done similar to how pirates create those emulation programs to play snes, etc onto a computer? Or is the architecture so complex that such a one-to-one conversion isn't possible.

That, and large parts of the classic Xbox architecture are patented by NVIDIA, which is unwilling to license them to Microsoft for use in an ATI based console at any price short of 51 percent of market cap. Besides, do you see working PS2, GameCube, or Xbox emulators on modern PCs? Emulation generally needs a gap of two console generations to work well, outside of special cases that can be high-level-emulated. Microsoft's goal in Xbox-on-360 emulation is to make each game such a special case.

I'm happy so far

[Dark Paladin]

I mean, the most important game on the list has backwards compatibility already.

Short version...

[larsoncc]

Major Nelson's interview of Peter Moore said that they were essentially looking to provide more updates in the next week, and that two of the new titles for backCompat would be Lego Star Wars and Doom 3. There will be about 20 titles in this update.

Re:Emulation?

[the_B0fh]

wtf? mame developers and such are not pirates. Gotta love those tar brushes. You stocked up on feathers?

Re:Does backwards compatability = Recompile?

[LiquidCoooled]

The doom3 "patch" required to run on linux is about 16MB (450MB for the demo which includes maps and textures)
Older versions of the port stand at about 8MB.

Many games actually need very little in the way of code, the greatest majority of the game comes from the textures and meshes which populate the worlds.

Remember, most modern games are based upon still valid functioning code from easily 20 years ago, the algorythms haven't changed much at all, the rules are still in place.